Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

I have registered my apprehension, on this blog, that the ECR group, which the Conservatives have helped constitute in the European Parliament, contains unpleasant, populist nationalists from the former Soviet bloc. I believe that the Tories should have considered more closely the character of the various organisations with which they were about to associate in Europe. It is true, however, that the groups within the European Parliament are, by necessity, alliances of convenience, forged between parties on the basis of the most amorphous common principles. Such is the character of EU politics. MEPs within a group, and the parties from which they are drawn, might share very broad objectives or a common outlook as regards the European Parliament. They certainly do not, by anyone’s understanding, endorse the domestic platforms of each of their groupmates. Which is why I believe that, the ECR having already been formed, Conservatives do not need to defend the Latvian Fatherland and Fr...

In an essay considering the chances of successful reconciliation between Russia and Georgia, Ivan Sukhov keeps his most interesting contention for the final paragraph. “Georgia, like most post-Soviet nations, is a country where the concept of nationality is crucial. A national agenda for Georgians is barely compatible with the thesis of a Georgia for everyone (i.e. for Georgians, Abkhazians, Ossetians, and for all other citizens regardless of their ethnicity). This is not a problem specific to Georgia. It is characteristic of almost all the post-Soviet nations, including Russia itself in many ways.” It is useful to read Sukhov’s piece in conjunction with a further Open Democracy article , which examines another post-Soviet state struggling to come to terms with ethnic division, Moldova. Transdniestria, Moldova’s own breakaway region, shares characteristics with South Ossetia. Although as Andrey Kalikh observes, the chances that serious violence will develop there remain slim. Howev...

Paul Mason (coincidentally one of the competition in the Orwell blog shortlist) has been examining the financial crisis in eastern Europe. His report from Latvia is worth watching, particularly because the Baltic state was being heralded as an economic success story in the very recent past. The pattern of huge borrowing to encourage unsustainable growth is replicated across the former Soviet bloc, with a few more robust exceptions. Coincidentally ‘Prospect’ also contains a dispatch from Riga in its latest issue (I‘m not on commission for the magazine by the way). Tom Chatfield considers the over capacity available in a country with a rapidly dwindling population. The capital itself has 20% fewer inhabitants since 1991. Chatfield hints that many of the people who have left Latvia come from its Russian speaking minority. He doesn’t investigate the discriminatory language and citizenship laws which have hastened that loss. An economy in freefall and a large minority which feels i...

Another indication of the ethnic nationalist character of the Estonian government. The authorities in Tallinn are drafting legislation aimed at persuading ethnic Russians to change their surnames. This type of ‘integration policy’ in Baltic States is rarely remarked upon in the British press, despite its unpleasant character . If a minority, comprising 25% of a country’s population, were treated in the fashion Russians have been treated in Estonia and Latvia, in Western Europe, would the media react with such equanimity? Discrimination against Russians is normally given a by-ball in terms of media opinion and any discontent amongst the Russian population in these countries can then be conveniently blamed on Moscow interference.

The Soviet and Nazi regimes both committed atrocities during their occupations of Lithuania. During nearly 50 years of Soviet rule, 74,500 people died or disappeared, due to summary executions, whilst in prison or during deportations. The Nazis occupied Lithuania for three years and killed 240,000 people, 200,000 of whom were Jews. Jonathan Steele examines why then Vilnius’ Museum of Genocide Victims is focussed only on the Soviet crimes and why this pattern is repeated in terms of public remembrance throughout Lithuania’s capital. Steele concludes that anger about recent Soviet occupations, “blocks discussion of Nazi mass murder and the fact that too many Lithuanians eagerly supported it”.

An interesting post-script from a story from last year. When Estonia’s computer systems suffered attacks from hackers last April the government alleged that these attacks were launched from the Kremlin. A year later Estonia is braced for more attacks, but the allegations appear to have dissipated. Indeed it emerges that a 20 year old Estonian has been prosecuted for the attacks. Estonia has a large, alienated Russian community who were incensed when a memorial to Soviet war dead was removed from central Tallinn.

I was watching the local news earlier in the week and it covered a story about an aggrieved woman who was being evicted from her house to enable an extension to the runway at Derry City Airport. She tearfully explained the extent of the injustice which had been dealt her; casting around for a comparison for her predicament, she cited one of a series of religious wars fought throughout Europe in the mid seventeenth century. “It’s just like Cromwell” she proclaimed. This woman is not atypical and nor did it seem likely that she was a scholar of that period of history. In Northern Ireland it seems fairly unexceptional for someone to invoke a perceived hurt from 350 years previous to exemplify the unfairness of a local spat over compulsory purchase. Bearing this in mind, it is questionable whether we really need a museum to pour over the details and complexities of our recent Troubles. That said, not all the ideas being floated by the Healing Through Remembering group actually in...

Prior to Saturday’s match against Denmark I had been nervous as a kitten for three days. Oddly with the match against Spain imminent and the resolution of our qualifying campaign only hours away, I have lapsed into some manner of Zen-like serenity. This may be attributable to my non-attendance at the match, an unavoidable consequence of limited holiday leave. Or it may be that in the depths of my soul I have already let go of this campaign, adjudging it a remarkable achievement, but acknowledging somewhere in my subconscious that on this occasion we’re not going to make it. I suspect that actually it is merely the calm before the storm and that by 7pm tonight my stomach will have clenched into a nauseas knot and a low roar of anxiety will have enveloped my thoughts. As is often the case for the most fraught football matches I watch on television, I am heading home to view it. There I can pass through the agonies only with my father, who will be going through the same. Perhaps this...

President Putin is boxing clever at the Russia EU summit by threatening to establish an institute in the model of EU funded NGOs in the heart of the European Union . With the EU and America funding bodies explicitly for the purpose of influencing Russian politics, Putin is simply suggesting that Russia exercises a similar role in the EU. With the European Union having ignored human rights infringements in the Baltics and other areas of Eastern Europe for geo-political reasons, there is work for such a body to focus on. "Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-connected analyst, said one of the institute's priorities should be highlighting discrimination against ethnic Russians living in countries once part of the Soviet Union, like Estonia and Latvia."

Another matter arising out of the Latvia trip was a prevailing discontent among the supporters about the confrontational and corrupt policing they faced. Undoubtedly this was justified to an extent, bribes were extracted and some people had very unpleasant experiences. The Latvian police could teach some people here a thing or two about what the word “heavy handed” really means. When you’re told to keep off the grass in Latvia, a baton around the head and being bundled into an unmarked van can be the sanction applied if you choose to persist. Admittedly as well, there is an increasing element of uncouth louts following the Northern Ireland team abroad. They pay no attention to local custom, show no basic social manners, have no interest in the culture or history of where they visit and flaunt their comparative wealth in the faces of those who host them. When they aren’t welcomed with open arms or find themselves laid open to exploitation, they whine about it or act aggressively. T...